London Buses route 248
London Buses route 248 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, England. Running between Romford Market and Cranham, it is operated by Stagecoach London. History Route 248 commenced operating on 3 October 1934, when the newly constituted London Passenger Transport Board instituted its own numbering system. In this scheme, all single-deck bus operated routes were numbered in the 200+ series. Route G3, which had operated daily between Upminster station and Cranham was numbered 248, and its "sister" route, the G4, then operating between Upminster and Corbets Tey on Mondays to Saturdays became route 248A. Origin Route 248 started as a local route running just from Cranham to Upminster station via St. Mary's Lane. Buses, or rather the one bus, ran every 17 minutes, which was presumably the most frequent it could run, given the 7 minutes end-to-end journey time. On Saturdays the frequency was boosted to every 8½ minutes, using the bus off the 249 (Corbets Tey to Upminster, every 16 minutes) which did not run on Saturday afternoons (or Sundays). Routes 248 and 249 were one-man-operated using Dennis Darts of an earlier generation, and, later, T-class AEC Regals with a crew of two. As further development took place in the area, in 1951 route 248 was extended north from Upminster Station along Hall Lane, as far as River Drive. Route 248A soon joined in and did even better by running on along the new Avon Road. In 1959 things were re-arranged, with route 86 (often stating as far away as Bow) replacing route 86A and continuing to Avon Road, and route 249 renumbered 248A and reduced again to Corbets Tey - Upminster Station running during peak hours only, London Country route 370 maintaining a service to Corbets Tey at other times. Route 193 would replace route 86 on Sundays, when neither routes 248 nor 248A ran. 1960 onwards In 1964, route 193 replaced route 86 as the service to Avon Road and Upminster Park, but during 1970 there was a more major re-structure making route 248 a much more prominent service. Route 86 was curtailed to Romford station and route 193 to Hornchurch, with route 248 extended from Cranham to Romford. The first leg from Cranham completed the rectangle by running along the middle section of Front Lane to Upminster Park, where a new loop via Waycross Road was introduced, before running via Avon Road and Hall Lane back to Upminster and then on to Hornchurch and Romford to terminate at Parkside Hotel in North Street. A Sunday service was re-introduced, but only on the new section to begin with. The route had to be single deck operated due to the low bridge in Cranham, but a further re-structuring in November 1981 allowed Leyland Titans to replace Leyland Nationals on Mondays to Saturdays when the service was curtailed to Cranham, now approaching from the opposite direction from before. Route 246 replaced this section, which is now covered by route 346. About 1984, the Sunday extension back to Upminster was removed in favour of a Sunday service on route 246, but in addition route 248 was split with a new route 244 running from Upminster Park via Cranham to Romford, as opposed to route 248 which ran from Cranham via Upminster Park. The Romford terminus was also revised to the Market at this time. On 24 September 1988, the route passed to Frontrunner South East. On 1 July 1989 the route passed to Ensignbus, and on 4 June 1994 to Capital Citybus. Route 248 was included in the July 1998 sale of Capital Citybus to First London. On 29 September 2001, route 248 passed to Blue Triangle with East Lancs bodied Dennis Tridents introduced. On 27 September 2008, it passed to East London operating from their Rainham (RM) garage with brand new Scania OmniCitys introduced. On 26 September 2015, the route was retained by Stagecoach London. Current route *Romford Market *Romford Station *Hornchurch *Upminster Bridge Station *Upminster Sstation *Upminster Park Estate *Cranham Moor Lane External links *London Bus Routes Gallery *Full Timetable (PDF) 248, London Buses routes